Letter: Residential segregation in Springfield

“Martin (Luther King Jr.) thought of segregation as a wall. This Supreme Court ruling was the first break in the wall. Martin wanted to be there to help take down more of it.”

Thus wrote Margaret Davidson in the book, “I Have a dream.”

That was segregation sanctioned by law; however, now we have residential segregation in Springfield because of history.

Wikipedia defines index of dissimilarity, also known as dissimilarity of index, as the extent of residential disparity between the races. The higher the index, the higher the disparity.

The “Census Scope Census Data Charts Maps and Rankings” website indicates the dissimilarity index for Springfield is 65.5, which is very high, meaning there is excessive residential segregation in the city.

The mayor of Springfield should appoint a task force to come up with recommendations within a certain time frame as to how to go about reducing the dissimilarity index within a certain time period so that there is no racial disparity in residential living in Springfield, and then act on the recommendations immediately.

“A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step.” — Lao-Tzu